VIP Comment: running on deep sand in 2012 – what we got right, and what we got wrong
By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Twitter: @MLiebreich 2012 has been a very difficult year. The clean energy sector has had to contend with economic austerity in Europe, policy uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic, US natural gas prices hitting lows of around $1.70 per MMBtu in the spring, and acute over-capacity in the wind and solar supply chains. Perhaps the best metaphor for this year is trying to run uphill on deep sand.
VIP Comment: window opens for Obama to let in fresh air on energy policy
By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Twitter: @MLiebreich November is a month of early darkness and gathering chill in the Northern Hemisphere. It is easy to get depressed.
North-South clean energy investment flows: an $8bn step to a $100bn goal
Executive Summary Clean energy investment in companies and projects reached a record $280bn in 2011, with more countries than ever attracting a share.
BNEF Chief Executive Michael Liebreich VIP Comment: UK energy policy – a time of consequences
Over the years I have attended hundreds of conference sessions on financing clean energy. Every time, the main conclusion is that financiers need a stable policy environment. Contrary to what the general public might expect, most serious investors in renewable energy don’t spend their time begging for bigger subsidies. Instead what they ask for is the assurance that policy-makers are not going to change the rules during the development of a project or, even worse, after it begins operating – as has happened in Spain, the Czech Republic and now Bulgaria.
Q3 2012 Clean Energy Policy & Market Briefing, prepared for Clean Energy Solutions Center
Weak Q3 puts clean energy on track to 2012 investment drop Policy uncertainty, market overcapacity, lower priced equipment and challenging times for manufacturers contributed to a disappointing Q3 2012 for new clean energy investment. In all, wind, solar, biofuels, and similar new energy technologies attracted $56.6bn in new capital worldwide. That not only marked a 5% drop from Q2 2012 and a 20% fall from Q3 2011, but also virtually assured the industry will post its first year-on-year drop in annual investment in at least eight years.
Are companies under-investing in energy efficiency?
Executive Summary of a report by Eamonn Boland and Sébastien Duquesnoy of Imperial College London Energy Futures Lab.
BNEF Chief Executive Michael Liebreich VIP Comment: water may top up the case for renewables
So here we are in the final two months of a U.S. general election, and energy has become a “wedge issue,” separating the two candidates. Mitt Romney’s position is that he will remove the subsidies on clean energy and help the oil and gas industry make the U.S. energy independent by 2020. The president’s position is that “all of the above” energy sources are needed, including continuing support for clean energy.
Leading the Energy Transition: Bringing Carbon Capture & Storage to Market
“Leading the Energy Transition: Bringing Carbon Capture and Storage to Market” is the first in a series of reports to be undertaken by the SBC Energy Institute on the energy transition in collaboration with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It highlights the status of current technologies, identifies needs in research and development, analyses the situation of demonstration and deployment projects, and gives perspectives on the future of both concerned technologies and CCS projects.
Global Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX) 2012
Companies are increasingly becoming important drivers of demand for renewable energy worldwide. In addition to government mandated renewable energy purchases, which are usually well-tracked for legal compliance reasons, the voluntary demand for renewable energy results in significant investments in green energy worldwide.
VIP Comment: clean energy’s puberty years – bewildering and irreversible
CLEAN ENERGY’S PUBERTY YEARS – BEWILDERING AND IRREVERSIBLE “Between the idea And the reality Between the motion and the act Falls the Shadow” TS Eliot, The Hollow Men, 1925 These are difficult years for the clean energy sector. A few years ago the industry seemed to be entering a golden age of limitless growth and infinite potential, the arrival of a new Aquarian age of progressive environmental business. Barack Obama prophesied that his election as president would herald the moment “when the rise of the oceans would begin to slow, when our climate would begin to heal”.